Wenger says he almost signed Ronaldo and hints at surprising story behind winger's United move

Cristiano Ronaldo scores a remarkable goal from a free-kick against Portsmouth. The Arsenal manager said he nearly signed the Portuguese player before he went to Old Trafford. Photograph by Jason Cairnduff/Action Images. Jason Cairnduff/Action Images

Arsène Wenger has revealed how close he came to signing Cristiano Ronaldo and suggested with some mischief that the player himself ought to tell the story of how he almost chose Arsenal over Manchester United.

Ronaldo is in scintillating form, with 27 goals in 28 games for United, and he represents the greatest single threat to Arsenal in what has become an enthralling Premier League title race.

Arsenal are level on points with United at the top of the table and Wenger hinted yesterday that similar margins were in play when Ronaldo weighed up his options at Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2003. With Real Madrid also to the fore, the Portugal winger moved to Old Trafford for £12.25m.

"I knew about him, yes," said Wenger. "We were very close [to signing him]. Manchester United had a partnership with Sporting Lisbon when [the assistant manager] Carlos Queiroz came in - that made the difference. One day I will tell you more about the story and you will be surprised. You will have to ask him [Ronaldo] how close it was. We had him here. He was here much earlier. He could tell you that if he wants."

Emmanuel Adebayor has emerged as Arsenal's attacking talisman this season, in the absence of Thierry Henry, the club's record scorer who departed for Barcelona last summer. The Togolese striker has 16 goals in the Premier League, three fewer than Ronaldo, and 19 in all competitions. Wenger insisted he would not swap Adebayor for anyone but he was fulsome in his praise for Ronaldo.

"Someone asked me what was the difference between Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi [of Barcelona]," he said. "It is the goals. Messi is more of a dribbler in a very short space but Ronaldo is good in the air, good on free-kicks, right foot, left foot. He has developed very well. Another quality Ronaldo has is that he stays healthy. He does not miss games. He has missed less games than [Wayne] Rooney and Messi in the last two years. He can take the kicks."

Ronaldo, though, has yet to win the biggest prize in club football and this is where Wenger feels that Kaka, the Milan midfielder who guided his team to last season's Champions League, eclipses him. The Brazilian has since won both the European and World Footballer of the Year awards. "Kaka made the difference in each round of the Champions League last year," said Wenger. "That has a massive impact. In the final games, from the quarter-finals, everybody watches that."

Wenger had not expected Ronaldo to be so prolific this season "because he plays on the wing" but he had been confident that Adebayor would feature prominently in the scoring charts. His impact has been particularly welcome because Wenger's other leading striker, Robin van Persie, has missed large portions of the season because of injury. He is out with a thigh strain and will not play at Manchester City today.

"Adebayor is a guy who made mistakes at the start of his career [in France] but he has realised that there is another life rather than being easy. He realised he wasted some time and it was time for him to be serious. He is a strong character in the dressing room and is a winner."

Rather like the title race, where Wenger acknowledged that there was no room for error, the battle for the Golden Boot promises to go to the wire. But Wenger sounded a note of caution. "The Golden Boot winner will not decide the title," he said. "I've never found a correlation between the best goalscorer and the title. Sometimes I found a negative correlation. In a good team the responsibility is shared. I don't believe there's only one man who scores goals and you win titles."

Wenger will give Jens Lehmann his first Premier League start since August at Eastlands because Manuel Almunia has damaged a thumb.